Teenagers - Tailor-Made Teaching

Homestay Films

in Adults, Children, General English, Teenagers

We usually have at least one film night during a homestay course. It can really take the pressure off having to entertain for the evening, especially good with children and teens. But it can be difficult finding films that will suit family and students. Read more

Homestay Games

in Adults, Children, General English, Spoken Fluency, Teaching, Teenagers, Vocabulary acquisition, Warmers

When you’re hosting homestay students, it can be difficult to engage the whole household in conversation, especially if your students are lower levels, particularly in the first few days. I tend to find there’s some dead time after dinner, rainy days and long journeys when everyone is gathered together and conversation can be difficult.

Here are some games we’ve used. The title of each game links to instructions. The language areas specified give an indication of lexical and grammatical areas practiced in the games, but these aren’t classes – the aim should be communication and fun, rather than accuracy. Read more

Literature Circles

in Children, Effective Thinking, Learner Autonomy, Reading, Teenagers

Over the summer I explored Academic Reading Circles (ARC) with pre-sessional students and was impressed with the depth of reading comprehension and quality of discussion they prompted. The students found them both valuable and enjoyable.

The Life Game

in Spoken Fluency, Teaching, Teenagers

NOTE: This ‘game’ has grown organically over the years as various teachers have made observations & contributions (I don’t claim sole authorship).

The Life Game is my favourite ‘getting to know you’ type activity because it:

requires few resources
is easy to set up
is based on students’ real experiences
is actually interesting
is genuinely ‘bonding’ & establishes a nice class atmosphere
gives me a good idea of the students’ speaking level/ability to communicate
gives me a good idea of the students’ interests
with adjustments can be made to work with any level post beginner.
works well with one-to-one classes as well as larger groups.
can last anywhere from 20 minutes to 1 1/2 hours with pre & post activities.

Teaching Teenagers

in Teaching, Teenagers

I’ve recently been working with a non-native English speaking English teacher from Spain on a home stay English refresher course. She’s taught English to adults for many years in a language college but in September will be teaching High School students. Like most of us who’ve become comfortable with a certain age group, she’s feeling some trepidation. We had a lot of conversations about teaching teenagers.